liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Your comments in black, mine in red.
Thinking hard on what the instructions are, I have come up with this:
I am to do things asymmetrically.
Yes, this is important to learn to do for skiing.
The weighted leg, should just be bent slightly and pressed into the boot. . No conscious rotation, no hover over the outside edge either. Just applying balance on the weighted leg and the whole body lean forward. That should turn the ski. Interesting. Your instructor is having you focus on "weighting" the new outside ski (the weighted one) first, to start the turn. I teach the other way, focus on the new inside ski (the lightened one) first to start the turn. We teach the same things, just in the opposite order.
**As I have said, there have been instructor "wars" over this sequence. All my comments have been to encourage you to do something with the new inside (unweighted) ski/foot/leg first.... knee-roll, bend the leg, lighten the ski. Your instructor may not know that this will start a turn all by itself.
To match that turn, the unweighted leg should: roll the knee out and tip slightly towards its uphill edge. Because you said "uphill edge" this means you do this knee roll after your skis have turned to point in the new direction, because that's when the unweighted ski the uphill one. Before the turn starts, the soon-to-be-unweighted-ski is the downhill one. That should in theory be enough - I understand - to effect a parallel turn. That third component, rotation of the unweighted foot , is in fact optional, if I cannot quite manage with just the first two.
Yes, it will start a turn because other invisible things are happening.
But if you have weight on the unweighted ski as your skis come around the corner, it will get stuck in that A-frame. By waiting to roll the knee until after the skis are pointing in the new direction (left turn, pointing left), you are losing a bit of your control over this unweighted ski. I think the solution is to roll the knee before the turn starts, not after.
I think now I have described the procedure as accurately as I know how. Wish I could do it, though!
You've described it very well! And you are paying very close attention to everything -- not all students have interest in thinking and working so hard on skiing well. You are the perfect student, determined to learn and persistent in figuring things out.
Since you have come here for advice, you may get advice that is a bit different from your instructor's. You'll need to decide if you want to deviate any from what he is telling you. If you can't get the results he wants for you with his instructions alone, you might try something new while in the lesson. The thing I will suggest will probably be invisible to him.
So here's my advice. Do everything he says, but do the things he tells you to do for the lightened ski first. Do these things before the turn starts. Do these things with the lightened ski in order to make the turn START.
I know from my own skiing and from all my teaching that this works. If you do these things only a second before doing the things he says to do with the weighted ski, he will not see it..... and you might see improvement in your control over that A-frame. Here are the things he is telling you to do with that ski:
--Knee-roll
--Lighten the ski (if you have trouble doing this, try keeping your shoulders high and hovering over the soon-to-be-weighted-ski as you do the knee-roll)
--Tip it towards its downhill edge (just a little -- the knee roll makes this possible; think about raising the arch of your foot).
--Do these things only a second before "weighting" the other ski. If you really do this, you may be able to get that ski unweighted early enough to rotate it to match the other ski and the A-frame will be gone.
I hope I've used English that makes sense. Your English is amazing! I don't speak any other languages and am so respectful of people who are multi-lingual.
Thinking hard on what the instructions are, I have come up with this:
I am to do things asymmetrically.
Yes, this is important to learn to do for skiing.
The weighted leg, should just be bent slightly and pressed into the boot. . No conscious rotation, no hover over the outside edge either. Just applying balance on the weighted leg and the whole body lean forward. That should turn the ski. Interesting. Your instructor is having you focus on "weighting" the new outside ski (the weighted one) first, to start the turn. I teach the other way, focus on the new inside ski (the lightened one) first to start the turn. We teach the same things, just in the opposite order.
**As I have said, there have been instructor "wars" over this sequence. All my comments have been to encourage you to do something with the new inside (unweighted) ski/foot/leg first.... knee-roll, bend the leg, lighten the ski. Your instructor may not know that this will start a turn all by itself.
To match that turn, the unweighted leg should: roll the knee out and tip slightly towards its uphill edge. Because you said "uphill edge" this means you do this knee roll after your skis have turned to point in the new direction, because that's when the unweighted ski the uphill one. Before the turn starts, the soon-to-be-unweighted-ski is the downhill one. That should in theory be enough - I understand - to effect a parallel turn. That third component, rotation of the unweighted foot , is in fact optional, if I cannot quite manage with just the first two.
Yes, it will start a turn because other invisible things are happening.
But if you have weight on the unweighted ski as your skis come around the corner, it will get stuck in that A-frame. By waiting to roll the knee until after the skis are pointing in the new direction (left turn, pointing left), you are losing a bit of your control over this unweighted ski. I think the solution is to roll the knee before the turn starts, not after.
I think now I have described the procedure as accurately as I know how. Wish I could do it, though!
You've described it very well! And you are paying very close attention to everything -- not all students have interest in thinking and working so hard on skiing well. You are the perfect student, determined to learn and persistent in figuring things out.
Since you have come here for advice, you may get advice that is a bit different from your instructor's. You'll need to decide if you want to deviate any from what he is telling you. If you can't get the results he wants for you with his instructions alone, you might try something new while in the lesson. The thing I will suggest will probably be invisible to him.
So here's my advice. Do everything he says, but do the things he tells you to do for the lightened ski first. Do these things before the turn starts. Do these things with the lightened ski in order to make the turn START.
I know from my own skiing and from all my teaching that this works. If you do these things only a second before doing the things he says to do with the weighted ski, he will not see it..... and you might see improvement in your control over that A-frame. Here are the things he is telling you to do with that ski:
--Knee-roll
--Lighten the ski (if you have trouble doing this, try keeping your shoulders high and hovering over the soon-to-be-weighted-ski as you do the knee-roll)
--Tip it towards its downhill edge (just a little -- the knee roll makes this possible; think about raising the arch of your foot).
--Do these things only a second before "weighting" the other ski. If you really do this, you may be able to get that ski unweighted early enough to rotate it to match the other ski and the A-frame will be gone.
I hope I've used English that makes sense. Your English is amazing! I don't speak any other languages and am so respectful of people who are multi-lingual.
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